Here are my tips on becoming a Citizen of the World and saving your dollars, Euros, Krone and Yen.

AS AN IMPROVISER… Your friends are everywhere. Most of these people you haven’t met yet but they are waiting to show you a good time. And if you want to have a great experience, you should reach out before you fly and say hello.

FIND YOUR FAR-AWAY FRIENDS:

START AT HOME:

If you live in a large improvisation community, you likely have visitors from away. INTRODUCE YOURSELF! Ask them what they are interested in doing and take them to the places you think they would enjoy. Buy them a Beer, Schnapps, Saki or Kambucha.  Find out if they need a sofa to sleep on before they move on to their next destination.

The connection you make will pay off for you or someone in your group as visiting guests return home with great memories of the experience you shared with them. Contact them when you are thinking about your travel plans.

REACH OUT ONLINE:

 POST YOUR TRAVEL PLANS HERE!!! 
Travelling Improvisers Facebook Group

You’ll find thousands of improvisers who are members of this kind group. Some of them live where you want to go.

In a random search on the Travelling Improvisers Facebook Group, there are improvisers:

• sharing their flats in Edinburgh, Scotland, 
• asking for help with travel plans in Toronto, Canada and 
• chatting about places to meet other improvisers in Italy. 

It’s a connected community. If you don’t get a response directly for your travel needs, you will likely be linked to someone in the location you are looking at .  

Reach out like a good improviser and start the scene. Others are there to take up your offer and help you move forward. On this site, REMEMBER this isn’t a place to advertise your shows. This is about the travellers.

From the Travelling Improvisers Facebook Group, head over to  Improv Teachers’ Support & Collaboration Group… or Improvisers Talking About Food (travel? Food? Improvisers – it has it all) Or click on the platform that you are most connected to and find the improvisers in the place you will be travelling to. Community is the place to connect and it’s your doorway to travel adventure. If you want to be included, then include yourself. Participate and connect..

NETWORK WITH THOSE WHO KNOW:
Talk to the travelling teachers who have passed through your community. They have great resources and the nice ones are always willing to help out and suggest places for you to contact.

BUT REMEMBER TO REACH OUT and not just ask others to do the work for you.  I get 4 or 5 private messages a week from people asking for help. I don’t mind helping the people who have tried to help themselves first but when the expectation is for me to become their one-stop travel shop, it gets a little tiring. Respect the time of the people who are willing to help.

TRY THE COLD CALL:
Basically, type your destination and words like IMPROVISATION, IMPRO, IMPROV into a search engine. 

You are likely to see a couple of names of Impro companies appear. Be brave, drop them a note. BE POLITE AND CONSIDERATE. They are improvisers and likely happy to make contact with you BUT they are running a business and don’t like when strangers say, “Put me in your show. I’m funny. And let me know who I can stay with!” That approach goes over like a good kick in the nether regions.

A polite note expressing your interest in what they are doing while you are in their area and a quick mention that you are an improviser and where you are from will go a long way to help you find your way in their world.

Some of those ‘cold calls’ have landed me in great locations with people who are now some of my best friends. Don’t ask for too much and be thankful when they offer any information or help.  
PS – it’s always smart to travel with a few little thank-you gifts from wherever you travel from… Maple Syrup from Canada has never let me down.

EXPRESS YOUR INTEREST TO GO WHERE THE LOCALS GO!
If you are chatting with other improvisers, you might see and have more unique experiences when you let them know you’d love to hang out where the locals eat and drink and dance rather than go the tourist route. Along with the more authentic experience of the culture, you are more likely to have a SAFE experience. Pickpockets and other nasties are looking for the less protected and educated tourists in the typical tourist locations than in the local hangouts.

FLIGHTS:
It’s getting crazy expensive to go anywhere and if you are flying, the extra costs can break you before you leave the ground.

SKYSCANNER has been my friend. It helps to have this resource favourited and ready to serve you. Just type in the destination and whatever filters you want to apply and you’ll get multiple options to get to where you are going.

Consider flying into a lesser-known airport if you can save on travel expenses. Look at the amount of time you will be flying. Some flights might cost 1/2 the price but they take 3 times as long to get there. If you are ok with sleeping in an airport, then you might save some money (including the cost of one night in a hotel.

BE AWARE that changing your flights by a day or two might save you some cash.  And watch which season you fly. Busy season means that airlines WILL charge a lot more. Be flexible. Adapt. One site suggested the following days for travel

• Cheap Days: (Local travel)., Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday are usually cheapest. For international travel, weekdays are usually cheaper than weekends.
• Expensive Days: Fridays and Sundays usually cost more, especially in North America.
• Cheap Times of Day: Fly when most people don’t want to. Cheaper times include dawn, overnight routes, and flights around the lunch and dinner hours.

When booking, check the cost, then set a TRAVEL ALERT that will notify you of price increases and decreases (available on the flight search page of your choice). Airlines often have flash sales that last a day. Catching one of these cheap flights calls for your spontaneous nature to jump into the scene quickly. Generally search international flights between 2 – 5 months  before travel. Domestic flights might still have reasonable flights available from 3 weeks – 2 months before you leave.

ALWAYS COMPARE FLIGHTS – and go to the airline selling the flight advertised on that low cost travel search page you use. You might find a deal that the others missed.

AN INTERESTING TRICK – or two!
Try a VPN. Sometimes if the airline’s system changes the fare slightly depending on where it thinks you are booking from.  It might save you some cash to play around with setting your location to a less affluent location.

When booking for more than one person, you MIGHT save little bit by booking 2 seperate tickets rather than booking both tickets together.

End of the year sales can be amazing. Between Christmas and New Years, a lot fewer people are spending money. The airlines know this and try to draw people in with drastically reduced prices on flights.

SEE SHOWS – SUPPORT THE IMPROVISERS – TAKE THEM HOME WITH YOU!!!
Hanging out with improvisers from other cultures is also like having a front row seat into their culture. It’s like having an immersive workshop into another way of living. It’s like having your very own inspiring story telling experience… It’s a rich and wonderful possibility.

See their shows. Play with them if they invite you. Share your ideas. They are interested in you. Learn their perspectives (Show your interest). AND invite them back to your country. Let them know they have a place to stay and a friend to show them a different reality when they are interested.